Technetium is totally out of place. It sits smack in the middle of the most solid group of elements around, the transition metals. Virtually all the transition metals are nice stable metals, solid citizens of the periodic table. And here technetium is radioactive! You've got to go a very long way up the list of atomic numbers before you run into another radioactive one (all elements above 83 are radioactive, but below that only 61 promethium and 43 technetium have no stable isotopes).

Why technetium is radioactive has to do with the way that protons and neutrons fit together in the nucleus. It's reasonably well understood why technetium can't find a stable configuration, and I think it's fair to say that it boils down to rotten luck. Here's an article about it.

Technetium is used for medical imaging, though this application is less popular now than it used to be. It can also be used to inhibit corrosion in steel, though of course it makes the steel radioactive.

Atlas of technetium bone scans.
This may be as close as I ever come to a technetium sample, given that it's highly radioactive and highly regulated. I do hope to have a real sample some day, but in the mean time, this is a nice book written by a couple of people who seem to have plenty. It's from1978, and from the sound it technetium bone scans were pretty new at the time.

I chose this sample to represent its element in my Photographic Periodic Table Poster. The sample photograph includes text exactly as it appears in the poster, which you are encouraged to buy a copy of.

Sample from the RGB Set.
The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table.

Sample from the Everest Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (except gases) weigh about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.

Radioactive elements like this one are represented in this particular set by a non-radioactive dummy powder, which doesn't look anything like the real element.

Medical vial.
I'm getting closer. I still don't have any actual technetium, but unlike my other samples that don't contain any technetium, this one actually used to contain technetium. Though it does not anymore.Source: Jason CohenContributor: Jason CohenAcquired:25 September, 2006Text Updated:11 March, 2007Price: DonatedSize: 1.5"Purity: 0%Sample Group:Medical

Lead pig for technetium.
I've listed a set of six similar lead pigs under technetium basically out of desperation. They have no technetium in them, but they used to. They are labeled with the names of various different radio-pharmaceutical preparations used to deliver doses of Tc-99m (metastable Tc-99, an excited state of the Tc-99 nucleus with a half life of just a few hours).Source:AnonymousContributor:Theodore GrayAcquired:11 August, 2007Text Updated:8 December, 2007Price: ConfidentialSize: 3"Purity: 0%Sample Group:Medical

Lead pig for technetium.
I've listed a set of six similar lead pigs under technetium basically out of desperation. They have no technetium in them, but they used to. They are labeled with the names of various different radio-pharmaceutical preparations used to deliver doses of Tc-99m (metastable Tc-99, an excited state of the Tc-99 nucleus with a half life of just a few hours).Source:AnonymousContributor:Theodore GrayAcquired:11 August, 2007Text Updated:8 December, 2007Price: ConfidentialSize: 3"Purity: 0%Sample Group:Medical

Lead pig for technetium.
I've listed a set of six similar lead pigs under technetium basically out of desperation. They have no technetium in them, but they used to. They are labeled with the names of various different radio-pharmaceutical preparations used to deliver doses of Tc-99m (metastable Tc-99, an excited state of the Tc-99 nucleus with a half life of just a few hours).Source:AnonymousContributor:Theodore GrayAcquired:11 August, 2007Text Updated:8 December, 2007Price: ConfidentialSize: 3"Purity: 0%Sample Group:Medical

Lead pig for technetium.
I've listed a set of six similar lead pigs under technetium basically out of desperation. They have no technetium in them, but they used to. They are labeled with the names of various different radio-pharmaceutical preparations used to deliver doses of Tc-99m (metastable Tc-99, an excited state of the Tc-99 nucleus with a half life of just a few hours).Source:AnonymousContributor:Theodore GrayAcquired:11 August, 2007Text Updated:8 December, 2007Price: ConfidentialSize: 3"Purity: 0%Sample Group:Medical

Lead pig for technetium.
I've listed a set of six similar lead pigs under technetium basically out of desperation. They have no technetium in them, but they used to. They are labeled with the names of various different radio-pharmaceutical preparations used to deliver doses of Tc-99m (metastable Tc-99, an excited state of the Tc-99 nucleus with a half life of just a few hours).Source:AnonymousContributor:Theodore GrayAcquired:11 August, 2007Text Updated:8 December, 2007Price: ConfidentialSize: 3"Purity: 0%Sample Group:Medical

Lead pig for technetium.
I've listed a set of six similar lead pigs under technetium basically out of desperation. They have no technetium in them, but they used to. They are labeled with the names of various different radio-pharmaceutical preparations used to deliver doses of Tc-99m (metastable Tc-99, an excited state of the Tc-99 nucleus with a half life of just a few hours).Source:AnonymousContributor:Theodore GrayAcquired:11 August, 2007Text Updated:8 December, 2007Price: ConfidentialSize: 3"Purity: 0%Sample Group:Medical

Technetium pig cart.
This small wheeled cart is filled with tungsten and lead pigs used to hold technetium (and perhaps other) radioactive medicines in syringes. The handle is longer than you might think is necessary. This is to keep the nurse or technician far away from the contents while pushing it down the hall. Imagine someone showing up in your hospital room with a cart she's keeping at several arms lengths away, containing a substance she proposes to inject into you.
The tall pig in the center is especially interesting. It has a looooong rod reaching from the top down into the heavily shielded section at the bottom. Finger hooks at the top of the rod let you haul the contents up from the pit without ever getting your hand closer than about 12" to the syringes held at the end of the rod. This lid is over an inch thick, because radiation emitted in a vertical direction needs to be stopped too. Source:AnonymousContributor:Theodore GrayAcquired:28 February, 2009Text Updated:1 March, 2009Price: ConfidentialSize: 18"Purity: 0%

Milking syringe.
This is a syringe used to wash technetium out of a molybdenum-99 based technetium generator.Source: AnonymousContributor: AnonymousAcquired:24 March, 2009Text Updated:24 March, 2009Price: DonatedSize: 3"Purity: 0%